china

Down by 30%: China buys smaller volumes of lumber

Article by Raphael Kerschbaumer (adapted for holzkurier.com; translated by Eva Guzely) | 24.01.2022 - 10:26

According to data published by China Customs Statistics, Chinese softwood lumber imports fell sharply in 2021, by 30% compared to 2020 to be precise, from 25 million m³ to 17.4 million m³. Russia still accounted for around two thirds of China’s overall imports in 2021 but was the main reason for the clear downward trend of imports, with a year-on-year decrease of 22% or 3.3 million m³).

Apart from Russia, most other trade partners also shipped significantly smaller volumes of softwood lumber to China. With the exception of Brazil (490,000 m³; +33%) and New Zealand (360,000 m³; +18%), no other Top 10 supplying country recorded an increase last year.

Canada in particular focused on other markets in 2021. Imports from the North American country decreased by two thirds compared to 2020, falling from 2.9 million m³ to only 980,000 m³. Shipments from Germany halved (470,000 m³; -50%) in 2021, while imports from Finland (656,000 m³; -32%) and Sweden (396,000 m³; -57%) also saw double-digit decreases compared to the year before.

Last year, China switched from importing softwood lumber to buying log wood as a reaction to the development of prices on the global lumber market. As a result, Chinese softwood log imports grew slightly, as the Holzkurier reported.

As always, you can find detailed developments of Chinese imports in our Datacube. You don’t have access yet? Here, you can find the right subscription for you.

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